


Greg's Sunset

by WalkingDictionary (Scared_Beings_in_the_Dark)



Category: The Millionaire Tour (2012)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, Spoilers for movie, Violence, canonical deaths, it's pretty cool, watch the movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-22 21:02:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13772505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scared_Beings_in_the_Dark/pseuds/WalkingDictionary
Summary: This might be the last sunset Greg Newman will ever see. He wishes it wasn't.





	Greg's Sunset

**Author's Note:**

> This piece is a missing scene/coda to a [decently cool movie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1937388/) my brother and I watched a few years ago. The run-time is just about 75 minutes.
> 
> Tagged for spoilers for the movie.

~ * ~

The setting sun paints with a heavy hand, the glow of light falling over Greg’s face. He watches Billie and Casper sitting in stony silence and in front of them the cabbie, Sammy, holding the wheel with an easy grip.

Greg settles back, resting his hands in his lap. He closes his eyes, willing away the tears of frustration and fear that prick his eyes. He promises himself he won’t cry.

When it comes time, he’ll die with the dignity he thinks he’s robbing his mother.

No hero stuff.

Greg scoffs quietly. He’s not been a hero today. He’s tried to live, and maybe in the end that’s his only crime before God.

He never did get to borrow—no, he corrects himself, _blackmail_ —the preacher. His mother’s hopes are dying with him.

He wishes it were over already, so he can rest—he’s so damn tired, wants to fall asleep, but the sound of the tires on the pavement won’t let him.

Really, though, it’s because he feels the finality of his last day on Earth crashing down around his ears. The light is fading fast, and he has nothing to show for his “tour” except the bruises from Casper’s temper tantrums.

He opens his eyes to watch the passing scenery with about as much interest as he can muster. Louisville isn’t the prettiest of places, but it sure as hell beats out a lot of other places.

The tarot card catches his attention again. The rosary it’s hung from is almost new, as is the card itself.

Eddie sure doesn’t use them.

He thinks about what Casper said, how it’s life not death, and he lets a little scoff escape again.

Casper’s so full of shit. It’s not a symbol of life. It means death, and Greg can feel the weight of it on his shoulders, stilting his breath, squeezing his lungs.

The _Hanged Man_. Greg is the _Hanged Man_.

The rope around his ankle is his mother’s illness, dragging him upside down and relieving him of his worth.

But, still, God hasn’t abandoned him. Not this time, not for six years.

Greg feels something constrict inside. He’s going to die tonight and there is nothing he can do to stop it. Not with his hands shackled.

He shifts slightly, feeling the pin prick him.

Well, God bless Becky. The pin will work nicely.

Greg learned how to pick a lock in seventh grade when he was too thin and wore too-thick glasses and all the kids made fun of him and locked him in the broom closet.

He used to keep a secret stash of bobby pins clipped to his collar. He hasn’t had to do that in years, but, really, God bless Becky and her charity.

He works the pin free, moving slowly so Billie, who keeps glancing at him, won’t notice the movement.

Casper ignores him completely, lunging forward suddenly to point toward an upcoming street.

His directions are quiet, as if even he feels the severity of the day winding down.

Then it goes to hell.

Billie orders them to the side of the road, and Greg isn’t sure what really happens after that except Billie is dead and he’s cuffed again, this time with his hands behind his back.

Casper is barely holding it together and the goddamn cabbie is in on the plot.

Except, he doesn’t seem to be—can’t be—on the Roman’s side. Why would he drive a cab to pick up Greg only to have Casper and Billie hijack them for the Millionaire Tour?

Sammy, Greg realizes, is Julius Jacks.

He bites his tongue. There is a woman, Julius’s wife, being held by the Roman. It does her no good if he reveals Sammy’s true identity to Casper.

He won’t have her blood on his hands even if it means he’s going to his death.

Suddenly, Casper is on him, fists smashing against his face, his chest, his shoulders. Because of the handcuffs, all Greg can do is endure it.

It’s over before Greg can even think that he somehow—maybe for Billie?—deserves this. The cabbie—Julius Jacks, he corrects himself—stopped Casper. He must still need Greg, but how long will that be? How much longer will the rope tighten and loosen?

This yo-yo business is almost worse than the fact that he is going to die tonight. Dignity, he reminds himself as he feels the tears well up again. Die with dignity even if it’s in ten minutes or ten years. Die with dignity for God and for his mother.

~ * ~

After, there’s a moment of disconnect—a breathe-and-you-miss-it—an ocean of space between an inhale and its exhale—a trembling pause on the precipice of a deeper one—and then—

Then it happens.

Time moves on.

A tear falls.

He swallows

It’s okay. It has to be.

He turns, lets Julius unlock the cuffs.

He moves slowly rubbing feeling back into his hands, stretching his legs. He grabs the briefcase on his way out, the precipice behind him as he stumbles onto the sidewalk.

Numbly, he watches Julius speed off. That disconnect is back, breathing down his neck as the weight of the briefcase registers. It’s the wrong one— _it’s not his_.

It will be okay. It  _has_  to be.

Julius isn’t coming back. He can’t.

Greg opens the clasps, stares down at his salvation. His mom’s salvation, too.

He feels relief break over him, sweeter than Casper’s demise, stronger than anything he’s ever felt before.

And then: “Hey, sir! Where you headed?”

It will be okay. IT HAS TO BE.

~ End ~

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to any and all who read this.


End file.
